(Revised Abstract) DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Scientific informatics continues to evolve rapidly, and the Bioinformatics Facility has become an increasingly important resource for all Cancer Center members. It is an especially critical resource for the increasing number of Cancer Center members who are taking systems biology approaches in their studies of cancer biology. This facility closely coordinates its efforts with the Proteomics and Genomics Facilities as well as Cancer Center structural biologists to ensure that scientific computing needs are met and that potential duplication of effort are avoided. Although basic needs for sequence databases and database-mining tools continue to be important, over the past several years the scientific computing needs of Cancer Center members have expanded in several key areas. To meet these evolving needs, the Bioinformatics Facility was reorganized in 2001 with new leadership, new staff members, and a redefined mission. The primary goal of this facility is to serve as a hub or focal point of high end scientific computing expertise and resources that synergistically complements more specialized computational expertise and resources located in individual research laboratories and other Shared Facilities, particularly the Proteomics and Genomics Facilities. For example, the Proteomics and Genomics Facilities provide dedicated computational services required for data reduction and analysis using specialized software tailored to the specific technologies in these facilities. Typically, the end products of such studies are lists of proteins/genes implicated in the biological process being investigated. The Bioinformatics Facility is the primary resource for further studies of these putative gene discoveries including: in silico investigation of function and homologous domains, prediction of structures using homology modeling, analysis of protein pathways and networks, and integration of complex data sets using relational databases. During the next grant period, computational resources accessed through a central Bioinformatics Facility web site will continue to be expanded and updated to meet the scientific computational needs of Cancer Center members. In addition, the Bioinformatics Facility staff will provide database development/management and customprogramming expertise to meet high end scientific computing needs for each of the three Research Programs.